In that instant, Xie Shuci felt a chill run through his body.
This was the first time he had encountered such a situation. Even though he had mentally prepared himself for what he might encounter after descending the mountain, he was still so frightened that he stood frozen in place, unable to move.
The little white horse also sensed something was wrong, neighed uneasily twice, and nuzzled Xie Shuci's arm with its head, as if wanting Xie Shuci to take it away from here.
However, the boy's sharp aura and killing intent towards Xie Shuci vanished in an instant, as if the genuine killing intent Xie Shuci felt at that moment was merely an illusion.
"call out--"
The wooden arrow pierced the sky, passing through the dense forest, striking the boy like a bolt of lightning barely perceptible to the naked eye.
The white-clad youth withdrew his gaze from Xie Shuci, glanced back indifferently, and without dodging or avoiding, allowed the wooden arrow, carrying the force of thunder, to pierce his chest precisely.
"careful!"
In the nick of time, Xie Shuci, a model citizen of the 21st century who obeyed all rules and regulations, shouted uncontrollably. He watched as the wooden arrow pierced the boy's chest, blood spreading wildly across his clothes like wildflowers in early spring, soaking through the surrounding white fabric in the blink of an eye.
The boy staggered back two steps, dragged by the arrow, and managed to regain his balance by stepping on a tree branch and leaning against the trunk.
At the same time, several chaotic footsteps sounded from the other side of the bamboo forest, and one of them exclaimed in surprise, "Oh no, there are living people!"
"There's a small immortal sect not far from here; these are probably disciples from there. Let's retreat; we can't pursue them any further."
"He's been hit by an arrow and shouldn't live much longer. Retreat!"
The footsteps faded into the distance. The boy, one hand braced against the tree trunk, seemed to be gripping the thick trunk with immense strength, whether from anger or pain. His fingers almost dented the trunk.
The next moment, his legs gave way and he fell from the tree.
Xie Shuci stood there, still shaken. He was still terrified by the look the boy had given him; it was so terrifying that he had never seen such a frightening gaze in his nineteen years of life.
The boy tumbled from the branch and landed in waist-high grass. The wooden arrow pierced his chest, and blood dripped from both ends, gradually staining the soil beneath him. The boy lay motionless in the grass, his back to Xie Shuci, his fate unknown.
"Hey..." Xie Shuci tied the little white horse to the tree, picked up a branch about the thickness of a thumb from the ground, and carefully approached the boy. "Are you still alive?"
He walked a short distance behind the boy and gently poked the boy's waist with a twig. The boy remained motionless, letting him do as he pleased.
"You...you're not dead, are you?" Xie Shuci's face turned pale. That long arrow had pierced through his chest. What if it had pierced his heart? Xie Shuci had never seen a dead person in his life, and he was immediately at a loss.
"Don't die... I'm warning you..." Xie Shuci's voice trembled, and his legs were still a little weak. He persisted in poking the uninjured parts of the boy's body with a branch, trying to get some response.
Now that he was closer, he noticed that the boy's body was covered with wounds of all sizes, including arrow wounds, knife wounds, and several wounds that Xie Shuci couldn't even recognize.
"Hmm..." Finally, under his continued harassment, the boy let out a hoarse murmur.
Xie Shuci breathed a sigh of relief, disregarding his fear, and dropped the branch to walk around to the boy.
The boy's face was extremely pale. Even though his features were still somewhat immature, it was still clear that he had an excessively handsome face with sword-like eyebrows and a straight nose. Perhaps because of the pain, he tightly pursed his lips, making his already thin chin appear even more fragile. He half-opened his dark eyes, but his gaze was as cold as a blade, piercing Xie Shuci's face.
"How are you?" Xie Shuci squatted down in front of the boy, her brows furrowed with worry and anxiety, but she didn't dare to touch him.
The boy was about fifteen or sixteen years old. For some reason, his eyes were captivating at such a young age. Xie Shuci was terrified by his gaze, but more than being afraid of his eyes, Xie Shuci was afraid that this grown man would die in front of him!
Seeing that he didn't respond and looked ashen-faced and on the verge of death, Xie Shuci became extremely anxious. Although the boy had no relation to him, and for a moment he even sensed that the boy was filled with murderous intent towards him, as a model young man living in a peaceful era, he couldn't just watch the boy die in front of him. Besides, the boy was so young; how could he just die like that?
"You, you speak? You can fly in the trees, you must be a cultivator, right? Quickly stop the bleeding, stop the bleeding yourself, and repair your wounds... Don't die, please don't die!" Xie Shuci said incoherently to the boy.
The boy seemed annoyed by his chatter, frowned slightly, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Do you have any medicine?"
"Yes! Yes! Wait for me to get it for you, just don't die!" Xie Shuci glanced at the boy worriedly, then ran towards the little white horse. Last night, the disciples of the Little Immortal Sect had given him a whole bunch of elixirs and medicines. He couldn't remember what they were for, but since the names were written on the bottles, he could probably guess a little.
Xie Shuci hurriedly ran back to the boy, carrying a wooden box. He knelt down, opened the box, and poured the medicine bottle onto the ground. "What medicine are you taking? I don't recognize it and don't know what it does..."
The boy glanced at him, cold sweat trickling down his forehead and into his temples. His pale lips pursed slightly as he struggled to reach out, his five blood-stained fingers slowly grasping a white porcelain bottle on the ground. He didn't have the strength to uncork it, so he handed the bottle to Xie Shuci, saying, "Open it."
Xie Shuci sensed that the boy was running out of breath. He hesitated for a moment, then glanced at the white bottle stained red with the boy's blood, and felt a chill run down his spine.
He forced himself to accept the white bottle, his hands immediately smeared with the boy's thick blood. At this moment, he couldn't care less. He opened the stopper and poured out two pure white pills. Seeing the boy look up at him, he gritted his teeth and put one pill to the boy's lips. The boy's dry lips parted slightly, and his warm, moist tongue swept the pill into his mouth, inadvertently touching Xie Shuci's trembling fingertips.
Seeing the boy swallow one pill, Xie Shuci handed him another and asked, "Is one enough? Do you want more? I'm telling you, don't die. If you die, I'll have a psychological trauma for the rest of my life."
Listening to his rambling, the boy suddenly grabbed Xie Shuci's wrist with tremendous force, his flesh squeezing against his bones, causing a sharp pain. Xie Shuci cried out, feeling as if his bones were about to be crushed!
"Let go!" Xie Shuci gasped.
The boy narrowed his dark eyes and glanced at him. His gaze was no longer as cold as before; it seemed to be scrutinizing him or deep in thought, as if he were calculating something.
"Let go! It hurts so much! If I die from the pain, who will save you?!" Xie Shuci was almost in tears from the pain. He suddenly felt incredibly unlucky to have encountered such a thing. If God gave him another chance to return to his original world, he would definitely eat well, sleep well, and cultivate his revolutionary capital to be healthy and plump!
The boy seemed to have taken his words to heart. He slowly released his grip, closed his eyes, and breathed heavily. He whispered to Xie Shuci, "I'm sorry, I... I'm a little scared."
The boy's voice was barely audible, and Xie Shuci didn't quite hear the last two words, but that didn't stop Xie Shuci from feeling a surge of sympathy. This little guy was at most sixteen years old, yet he was already facing the pursuit of his enemies. His eyes were so terrifying, perhaps because he carried a deep-seated blood feud. But he was still a child after all, and of course he would feel fear when facing death, wanting to seize the only chance to call for help.
It was worth it for Xie Shuci to have read hundreds of novels on a certain Green River; in the blink of an eye, he had already imagined the boy as a character with a tragic background who endured humiliation and hardship.
Seeing the boy's pale face and bloodstains all over his body, Xie Shuci felt a surge of righteousness. He patted the boy's cold cheek reassuringly. The boy glanced at him, then lowered his eyes, looking quiet and pitiful.
"Don't be afraid, you won't die, I will definitely save you," Xie Shuci said confidently.
Although he didn't know how to save the boy, keeping that thought in his heart would surely help him hold on a little longer.
The boy glanced at him again and said to Xie Shuci, "Help me sit up."
"Can you sit down? Won't it aggravate your wound? If it hurts, just shout it out, don't hold it in." Xie Shuci tends to talk a lot when he's nervous, and the boy seemed impatient, frowning with some displeasure.
He stepped forward and helped the boy up by the arm. In the process, it seemed to aggravate his own wounds. The boy gritted his teeth and remained silent.
With Xie Shuci's help, the boy successfully sat cross-legged on the ground. In just a few short movements, sweat poured down his forehead, making his pale face look even thinner.
The boy meditated and circulated his spiritual energy. Although there was no wind around, his hair and robes fluttered and floated. The spiritual energy formed a transparent protective layer on the boy's body. Before long, the wooden arrow that had pierced the boy's chest broke in two and fell out of the wound. Blood immediately flowed out even more turbulently. The boy formed a hand seal and covered the wound with spiritual energy, which barely stopped the bleeding.
Xie Shuci stared at the scene in astonishment, marveling at the wonders of the world.
Seeing that the young man was healing, Xie Shuci was afraid that if she disturbed him, she might accidentally cause him to go into a state of demonic possession. So she tiptoed to the side, sat down cross-legged like the young man, rested one hand on her knee and looked at him.
Only then did he take a good look at the boy's appearance.
Although the boy was young and slightly taller than Xie Shuci, he didn't look very robust. In fact, because of the blood and wounds covering his body, he even appeared somewhat frail. Of course, this was just an appearance; he had just suffered such severe injuries that he had almost broken Xie Shuci's bones.
Xie Shuci could understand the unique temperament of the young man. It was a fragile sense of vulnerability, but it wasn't actually a weakness; it was just an illusion created by his appearance.
Xie Shuci didn't know how long he had been looking at the child, but he thought to himself that this kid was really good-looking. If this were the 21st century, with his looks alone, he would definitely be a top figure in the entertainment industry where appearance matters. If he got a little older and fully matured, he could be considered a femme fatale.
The boy sat there for half a day without changing his position or opening his eyes. Xie Shuci was so bored and nervous for so long that he was already drowsy. In the end, he simply lay down in the grass and took a nap.
Half-asleep, he vaguely heard a muffled groan. He opened his eyes and found that it was completely dark. Through the gaps in the treetops, he could see a few bright stars hanging in the sky.
Xie Shuci was still half asleep and didn't immediately realize where he was. He heard a "poof" sound beside him, and a splash of bright red blood splattered onto the grass. Xie Shuci jolted awake and sat up instantly. He turned to look at the boy, who had coughed up blood and collapsed to the ground.
"Hey! What's wrong? Don't scare me!"
Xie Shuci crawled over on his hands and feet and gently touched the boy twice. The boy did not move. He leaned forward and turned the boy's body around. By the moonlight, he looked at the boy's face and then noticed that a lot of blood was flowing from the boy's eyes, mouth, nose and ears.
Xie Shuci was shocked. He was bleeding from all seven orifices!
"Don't die! I'm warning you, don't die! There's no one to collect your body in this desolate wilderness! There might even be wild dogs or wolves..." Xie Shuci completely panicked, frantically wiping the blood from the boy's face while shaking his body, "Wake up! Talk to me!"
"Tsk..." The boy was probably shaken awake, making an impatient sound. Then he grabbed Xie Shuci's shoulder with one hand and suddenly flipped over, pinning Xie Shuci down.
"Holy crap—"
Xie Shuci felt a sudden dizziness as the boy firmly pinned down his limbs.
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